The reddit contradiction. thoughtful comments take time but quick comments get viewed more. thoughts?
Posted Feb 4, 2009, 10:52 AM UTC
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You'll read this one.
3
But it is not entirely certain that you'll exert the effort required to process everything I write here. Why? Well, ADHD-Gerbil-like attention spans, ingrained reddit surfing behavior, time/worth analyzes that favor short comments, the chance that a short comment is entertaining is much higher than that of a long winded comment.
I call this the John Kerry effect: John Kerry was a very good speaker, in theory, but the message is lost because of his delivery and even the appearance of him being verbose... in fact I'm fairly certain that if John Kerry read a fairly succinct statement it would appear at the offset that it was more long winded.
For example:
Comment: SLUT
VS.
Comment: All outward indications say she's a prostitute.
Now guess the comment karma distribution for those two. One perhaps more amusing in the context of whatever trollop you are discussing, but when you scroll down you saw the shorter all caps comment first and it got your upvote.
Also Bel-airs definitely cause people to skip a long comment, check for a bel-air, and then move on.
Reddit's staggered presentation of comments also feeds into this, many of the most interesting and well thought out comments are not even on the main reddit page because they occur too deep in a conversation that was sparked further up the page.
But, things have always been this way. You have to put in effort to come away from reddit enlightened. Now that reddit is a larger community you have to chase the more specialized and nuanced conversations into subreddits, but it is still there, alive and well.
You probably did not read this.
4
I did, and you are right, the best bits are in the subreddits.
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You probably did not read this.
Well I did actually but that is because I write long winded comments myself (unintentionally) and I am also aware of short comments gaining popularity, so I make an effort to read comments of all shapes and sizes to ensure that I make informed choices/opinions on particular topic.
I think the key is no more than three pars, intro/body/conclusion - there is no real benefit in writing a thesis (unless specifically asked).
And yes, I am stalking you...
Moving along.
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Well, I am honored to have a stalker. It lends an air of importance to things I say. :]
I would write my long winded comments in such a succinct way (intro/body/conclusion) but I just write in more of a "stream of consciousness" style and can't really help it. If I had to go back and edit for format it would be way to much effort per comment for me to even bother with long winded stuff in the first place.
1
Dude, that's scary o.O
"stream of consciousness"
I had that written and then took it out. So when I logged in this morning I thought you were just repeating what I said until I came in and read through what I actually wrote. I am now double checking to see whether I have written it...
Weirdo :P
1
I'm not a total reddit addict. I probably only spend half an hour a day here. But I find that whenever I want to comment on something genuine, it takes me a while to write it. Especially if I'm citing.
I see complaints that reddit is loosing the edge and loosing the intelligent comments. But it seems to me that this is bound to happen when fast posting is incentivsed.
I know that up voted comments float to the top. But only if they are posted within a few hours of the original post, otherwise they often get swamped out by one good point of view followed by dross.
I don't have an easy solution to this. Just wanted to share my sadness that although I am capable of writing intelligently Reddit leaves me feeling unsatisfied, because there is no way I can put in the time commitment that would be needed to really contribute anything useful.
Maybe that is the secret of its success. The eternal carrot on the stick. If only I put in another hour I might be able to post something that others read.
Where do others hang out for casual intelligent conversation, which is all I'm looking for here?
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(It's, 'Loozing'.)
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write a quick comment and then follow it up with a more thoughtful reply
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the basic theory is that the quick comment gets some cheap and easy karma points, thereby bubbling to the top of the page if you have sort by: top on. the long, thoughtful comment may or may not get as much karma, but by being a reply to the high-karma comment, it will be dragged up the page itself, and thus get read.
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Yes. In the past two days my top comment was "Dude?"
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My highest comment in the past few weeks was blank.
I did put some thought into it though.
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Testing
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It's not that long comments are more thoughtful, it's that they elaborate more on thoughts. To have an argument I have to have a claim, and if I make my claim with no supporting reasoning it's worthless. Further, I've found that most people cannot usually infer my reasoning, so I'm forced to elaborate every necessary point until the argument is bulletproof.
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Learn to be concise. You are not as profound as you think.
that's the best excuse I've ever heard for turning my own crippled attention span into your problem, I salute your genius sir :D
Unfortunately, with conciseness comes unreasonable certainty due to "bold statements". Uncertain language is longer, but more truthful.